Omo Valley: The Dorze People

The first first thing we learned about the Dorze people when we entered their village is that they shape their huts like elephants.  Evidently, at one time, there were many elephants living in their area, but no longer.

 Every hut has a sort of ''nose'' at its south side, serving as a reception room. There are also small "gables" on the roof that look like ears and eyes.  In the middle of the hut there is an open fire for cooking. There are also low benches to sit around the fire. Along the walls are sleeping places and areas for storage.  The Dorze people bring cattle into their huts for warmth on cold nights. The body heat from the cattle warms the hut.  Smaller huts are built for cooking or storage. 

In addition to resembling elephants, Dorze huts are unique because they are built with a large central pole.  The smoke from the cooking fire hardens the thatched roof, so the huts can last 60- 80 years. When termites attack the base of a hut, the Dorze can just remove the hut from its foundation and relocate it. This allows the home to last much longer, but every move shortens the height of the hut.

In the Dorze community, women prepare kocho (flat bread) out of the enset plant, which is also called  "false banana", because it looks just like a banana tree without the fruit. Being a staple for about a third of Ethiopians, kocho is nowadays highly regarded for its nutritional value. It is consumed in towns troughout the country.  It is said that if you have false banana plants, you will never starve. 

My nutritional science background drove me to research the nutritional value of the enset plant. Quite frankly, it looked colorless and of low nutritional value to me.  I found a technical report, however, that said the enset plant produces the "highest yield per hectare and highest energy content per kilogram of edible yield", particularly because the kocho is often eaten with kale.  The report recommended expanding the cultivation of enset.

We watched a demonstration of how kocho is prepared. First, the young woman scraped the starch off the inside of the long leaf. The only parallel I can think of is scraping the edible portion off an artichoke leaf.  However, the enset leaves are  2-3 feet long. 

The women then mix that starchy product with water and put the mixture into a clay pot underground, where it remains for 3 months.

  After the designated time period, they remove the dough-like matter and pat it into round shapes. 

Then, the round shaped kocho are folded between two large flat leaves of the enset plant and baked over a fire. We tasted the kocho, but didn't really care for it. Perhaps, it's an acquired taste!

The men, in addition to working in agriculture, are known for weaving. They create traditional clothing, scarves, and blankets for community use and also to sell to tourists.